Hi Graham,
My wife and I stayed at Paradise Beach Club (Playa Dorada) about 10 years ago and had a great time there. I can imagine though, that after 10 years, it may well need refurbishing.
At the time we were there, the rooms were fine, as were the three restaurants on the complex. Of the three restaurants, one was buffet style and the other two had to be booked in advance, though that was no problem.
The buffet restaurant had a different theme every night, varying through Indian, Chinese, Mexican, Dominican and etc. This restaurant was also used for the breakfast and this was excellent. You would be hard pushed to think of a breakfast dish they didn't provide, through meats, cereals, omelletes to your order, waffles, fruit, fish and pulses.
The othet two restaurants could be booked in the morning, when we were down for breakfast. One was Italian, loacted below the casino, and the other was a grill bar, located at the beachfront adjacent to the buffet place. If, by any chance, you didn't like the meal you had at the bookable restaruants, you simply had to walk down to the buffet and help yourself. Pizzas and hot dogs were available until 02:00am.
At night, entertainment was around the pool and veried every evening. The local beer was Presidente and, in spite of my fears, turned out to be the best beer I've ever had in a Caribbean resort. Once the pool area bar closed, around 110:00 / 11:30pm, you could drinik down at the beach bar until 02:00am.
After that, if you still had the energy and the willpower, you could go to the resorts own "disco", where the first drink was free and you paid after that. Alternatively, you could drink in the casino and, if you were playing the tables, drink was once again free.
I believe that Paradise Beach Club now have a sharing relationship with a couple of other complexes, whereby residents of any one place can visit either of the others and dsrink for free as long as you have your wrist band on.
As I recall, at the time, there were about 26 complexes in the Playa Dorada resort, with a Robert Trent Jones golf course smack in the middle, along with a shopping centre. I played this and it was a nice course. It was mandatory to hire a local caddy, but that was a bonus to be honest, as he knew the course and the greens very well.
The stretch of private beach at Paradise Beach was attractive and very clean. There was very little in the way of nuisance hawkers trying to sell goods, as the whole place is cordoned off and the resort itself is within a guarded and patrolled wall. Don't let that worry you, as it's mainly to keep the vendors & etc out.
The nearest town is Puerto Plata, but we only went there once for a large carnival parade. The town see,ed fine, but beware of locals saying they are with one of the Tour Operators, (usually wearing a washed-out tee-shirt with the logo), as they will offer to be your guida and will subsequently want paid. I don't know how unpleasant that could become in Puerto Plata, but I saw evidence of it in Montego Bay Jamaica and it could be terrifying. Ask your rep about that.
As for excursions, several got good reports from other residents I met, but the one we particularly enjoyed was to "Bacardi Island". where they supposedly had filmed one of the Bacardi adverts. I don't know if it was true or not, but the island was beautiful and the four hours journey well worth the effort.
To be honest, the journey flew in both ways. On the way out, the guide gave us a history of the island and it''s population and the sharing with Haiti. On the way back he plied us with Dominican rum and we stopped off at a fresh-water pool to swim and get the salt water from the island off our skin.
All-in-all we had a great holiday and would certainly go back. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did. Please let us know how it was when you get back, it might just make me return as I've often promised.
JJ.
and thanks for any information,
